Anatomia Humani Corporis

Anatomy

Govard Bidloo

The widow of Joannes van Someren, the heirs of Joannes van Dyk, Henry Boom and widow of Theodore Boom

1685

Gerard de Lairesse (artist), Abraham Blooteling (portrait engraver), Peter and Philip van Gunst (engravers)

Public Access (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2004)

Ontledings des Menschelyken Lichaams

136 p (105 Copperplate engravings), 51 x 36 cm

Latin

Medical Text

Seventeenth century Dutch anatomical atlas

Anatomia Humani Corporis, centum & quinque tabulis, per artificiossis. G. de Lairesse ad vivum delineatis, demonstrata, veterum recentiorumque inventis explicata plurimisque, hactenus non detectis, illustrata.

Originally published in 1685 (a later, Dutch edition, was published in 1690), Anatomia Humani Corporis features 105 copperplate engravings of the body, illustrating the muscular, skeletal, reproductive, and systemic organization of the human body with commentary. Measuring at roughly 51 cm by 36 cm, Bidloo’s anatomical atlas is one of the largest atlases created in the early modern period. The artistic influence of de Lairesse is apparent in each of the illustrations as they present the body not only in almost life size scale, but with the finely detailed accuracy that only a skilled artist could provide. Anatomia Humani Corporis was published in Latin by the widow of Joannes van Someren (a prominent book publisher in Amsterdam who passed away between 1678 and 1679), the heirs of Joannes van Dyk, Henry Boom and the widow of Theodore Boom in Amsterdam. Anatomia was dedicated to Henry Casimir II, the Dutch Stadtholder of Friesland and Groningen. The drawings for the illustrations were designed by the Dutch artist Gerard de Lairesse, a close acquaintance of Bidloo's, and engraved by the brothers Peter and Philip van Gunst. de Lairesse introduced Baroque and Pastoral elements to anatomical illustration that had otherwise been unheard of. The atlas is divided into two major sections, one detailing the muscular and systemic organization of the body, and the second detailing the skeletal makeup of the body. Eighty-three of the plates depict the body in various stages of dissection, some providing details of the instruments used. The remaining twenty-two plates, three display the surface anatomy, and nineteen depict the various bones that make up the skeleton.

Allegorical Title Page
Text Title Page
Dedication to Henry Casimir II
About the Author
Author's portrait
Appraisal
Index of Tables
Introduction
The first part of the dissection of the human body
The second part of the dissection of the human body, acting on the chest, back, and loins
The third part of the dissection of the human body, acting on the belly and even intestines
The fourth part of the dissection of the human body, acting on the female and male reproductive systems
The fifth part of the dissection of the human body, acting on the limbs
The sixth part of the dissection of the human body, acting on all bones
Conclusion

1685

1690

Ontleding des Menschelyken Lichaams

the Anatomy of Humane Bodies

Bidloo, Govard. Ontleding des Menschelyken Lichaams. Amsterdam, for the widow of Joannes van Someren, the heirs of Joannes van Dyk, Henry Boom and widow of Theodore Boom, 1690.

Beekman, Fenwick. “Bidloo and Cowper, Anatomists.” Annals of Medical History (1935): 113-129.

Choulant, Ludwig. History of Bibliography of Anatomic Illustration In its Relation to Anatomic Science and the Graphic Arts. Trans. Mortimer Frank. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 1920.

Dumaitre, Paul. La curieuse destinee des planches anatomiques de Gerard de Lairesse. Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1982. Johns, Adrian. “Piracy and Usurpation: Natural Philosophy in Restoration.” In The Nature of the Book, Print and Knowledge in the Making. Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Kneoff, Rina. “Moral Lessons of Perfection: A Comparison of Mennonite and Calvinist Motives in the Anatomical Atlases of Bidloo and Albinus.” In Medicine and Religion in Enlightenment Europe. England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2007. Pp 121-143.

Kuretsky, Susan Donahue. “Lairesse Meets Bidloo, or the Case of the Absent Anatomist.” Midwestern Arcadia: Essays in Honor of Alison Kettering (2015): 28-38.

Roberts, K. B., and Tomlinson, J. D. W. The Fabric of the Body: European Traditions of Anatomical Illustration. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.

Book

Bidloo, Govard. Anatomia Humani Corporis. Amsterdam, for the widow of Joannes van Someren, the heirs of Joannes van Dyk, Henry Boom and widow of Theodore Boom, 1685.

Artists

Medical practitioners

Medical students

Bookseller’s ticker of Frederik Muller, Amsterdam